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Well, I was almost going to use that term on myself... but I'm aware of the T2's downsides as well. Namely, its paint that chips and scratches very easily. And the flexier shaft that feels like it can almost snap with a very hard smash, and that kinda makes it hard to control the angle of a hard smash. Hopefully, more playing time will allow me to adapt to it.

OK, let's not get carried away here. While I agree the paint finish on the T2 still is not as consistent as we like, so are good, so not so good (still need to work on this), the shaft is by no means flexi or going to snap off from a hard hit. The shaft is still stiff, just not extra or ultra stiff.

As for smash angle, that's the user not the racket. If your smash becomes harder, you need to jump higher to get better angle. It's a two-edged sword.

OK, let's not get carried away here. While I agree the paint finish on the T2 still is not as consistent as we like, so are good, so not so good (still need to work on this), the shaft is by no means flexi or going to snap off from a hard hit. The shaft is still stiff, just not extra or ultra stiff.

As for smash angle, that's the user not the racket. If your smash becomes harder, you need to jump higher to get better angle. It's a two-edged sword.

I suppose if the T2 shaft can withstand Panda's (ab)use, then I should have more faith in it. .... It's just that, coming from a TiSP SS, I'm not used to so much bending of the shaft during smashing. This causes me to be unsure of where the racket frame is facing upon bird contact, and hence, my smash angle is now inconsistent. Perhaps another factor is also the faster swing speed, so timing of the snap becomes even more critical. Don't worry, I'll adapt. smash angle,

With the cash you provide, we could maybe be allowed to express some individuality with avatars and stuff, and maybe even be able to have more pm's in the inbox and maybe even not get censored so often. Heck, with the extra bandwidth we might even be able to post pictures you can actually see!

A unpopular but surefire way. *pretend* there's woven kevlar, and stamp it on. But that'd be bad for the company name...

I think one of the biggest sellers is that we're getting an amazing racket that is > yonex, for less or less than half the yonex price. Putting it up to 200+ just means that if I want a woven kevlar racket, I'd go find out more about SOTX and Forza. So I'm glad you're not trying to just capitalize on your current popularity and actually looking for a way to service the badminton community in the best way.

All of this has been posted before...somewhere in here...or at least on BC somewhere.

In a nutshell (Panda's no expert on this stuff):

Traditional woven graphite, if properly used, is the best material for badminton rackets currently available (outside of unreachable, expensive, exotic materials).

Traditional carbon graphite/carbon fiber/graphite/graphite fiber are thousand of carbon fibers twisted into shape. Weaving (woven) is just a way of shaping it, in a, you guessed it, woven pattern to make it better in all aspects. It also costs more than it's traditional twisted partner.

Now there are two types of woven graphite. Traditional woven graphite is woven bi-axially. Meidai in Japan has come up with a woven graphite that's quad-axial (or Tetras Axial as they call it). It's nearly twice as strong as woven graphite and Mizuno uses it on their TC (Tetra Cross) rackets. But after testing the TC700, I feel it's too much of a good thing. It's too stiff and demanding and unyielding. There's no feedback, no vibration, no feel. Imagine hitting a shuttle with a paddle ball racket, that's about the feel.

Designing a well performing racket is not always so easy. If you emulate a tried and true formula, then it's much easy. If you are delving into exotic materials or new things others have not tried, it's definitely not so easy unless you get lucky.

It's not always raw numbers and stats, it's the blending, the synergy of all the parts that makes a racket "good".

Now there are two types of woven graphite. Traditional woven graphite is woven bi-axially. Meidai in Japan has come up with a woven graphite that's quad-axial (or Tetras Axial as they call it). It's nearly twice as strong as woven graphite and Mizuno uses it on their TC (Tetra Cross) rackets. But after testing the TC700, I feel it's too much of a good thing. It's too stiff and demanding and unyielding. There's no feedback, no vibration, no feel. Imagine hitting a shuttle with a paddle ball racket, that's about the feel.

Apart from that I don't agree about the TC700s responsivness (which I think is great if one gives it some getting used to time finding the sweetspot) , I think you are jumping into premature conclusions, about the properties of tetra axial-wovens. Mizuno have used tetra-axial woven graphite in different racket-models.. TC700 being the stiffest version, but they also have TC500,TC400 and TC300 models all with more flex than the TC700.
You may find the TC700 to stiff for your liking, but how can you conclude that this is because the tetra-axial woven!?? If you haven't even tried the flexier racket models also using tetra-axial woven as well??

To me it is like if someone would be saying Toray is not suitable for rackets, as the Ultra 1 feels to stiff?!?!

I'm not going to get into debate about this but I would like to clarify these things:

1) TC700 is what I referred to, no other Mizuno racket.

2) The TC700 shaft is not too stiff, nor is the frame. It's the combination of everything, it's just too demanding, relatively speaking and there's no feel, no feedback. For me, that's not a good racket.

That is all.

Originally Posted by twobeer

Apart from that I don't agree about the TC700s responsivness (which I think is great if one gives it some getting used to time finding the sweetspot) , I think you are jumping into premature conclusions, about the properties of tetra axial-wovens. Mizuno have used tetra-axial woven graphite in different racket-models.. TC700 being the stiffest version, but they also have TC500,TC400 and TC300 models all with more flex than the TC700.
You may find the TC700 to stiff for your liking, but how can you conclude that this is because the tetra-axial woven!?? If you haven't even tried the flexier racket models also using tetra-axial woven as well??

To me it is like if someone would be saying Toray is not suitable for rackets, as the Ultra 1 feels to stiff?!?!

Oh yes, just to clarify more: I have nothing against Mizuno. In fact, I feel Asics Tiger and Mizuno are among the best at what they do. I have Mizuno clothing, shoes and back in the day softball bats and gloves, all excellent.

In fact, I really like Mizuno products which I believe are first-rate. Everything they do is quality. The TC700 is first-rate in terms of fit, finish and materials used; I just do not like the way it performs. I was quite surprised...maybe I got a defective TC700? Or maybe Panda needs to pump more iron.

With the cash you provide, we could maybe be allowed to express some individuality with avatars and stuff, and maybe even be able to have more pm's in the inbox and maybe even not get censored so often. Heck, with the extra bandwidth we might even be able to post pictures you can actually see!

I think that would be a fantastic idea. What does everyone think.

I think it's a great idea.
But I have a feeling that Dan has an understanding with Kwun, especially with this mega thread. Dan already has a wide latitude in this forum to provide word of mouth advertising with pre and post sales customer support!